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Life in the Warsaw Ghetto through the Poetry of Władysław Szlengel

“I read my poems to the dead.
In empty apartments,
in rooms with broken furniture,
in cellars, in the ruins of houses
where the wallpaper hangs in shreds.”
— Władysław Szlengel, What I Read to the Dead

Władysław Szlengel, often called the poet of the Warsaw Ghetto, was a Polish-Jewish writer and lyricist whose verses became both literature and testimony. He chronicled life behind the walls with precision and empathy, capturing hunger, deportations, irony, satire, and the final uprising.

In the Ghetto, his poems were read aloud at secret gatherings, copied by hand, and passed from person to person. They were remembered for their accuracy and depth, giving expression to what so many felt but could not say. For those around him, Szlengel’s words were more than poetry; they gave strength, dignity, and the feeling of being seen.

Szlengel himself did not survive. He and his wife were killed together with others hiding in a bunker during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in May 1943. His poems endured thanks to the underground Oneg Shabbat archive created under Emanuel Ringelblum, which preserved them for future generations. Through this survival, his voice continues to speak.

Join me, Keshet Bar-Yadin, Polish-born Jew, travel curator, and founder of Five Star Tours, for a powerful session that brings together history and poetry in a deeply human portrait of the Ghetto.

What to Expect

This talk tells the story of life in the Warsaw Ghetto through the voice of Władysław Szlengel. His poems, written in real time and shared among his community, bring to light the daily struggles and resilience of Jews in the Ghetto.

Through stories, historical context, and selected poems, we explore:

  • Moving to the Ghetto — forced resettlement and the loss of home.
  • Hunger and Daily Survival — bread as sacred and unattainable.
  • Waiting, Fear, Silence — broken connections and isolation.
  • Children and Smugglers — starving children risking their lives.
  • Deportations and Death — the deportations to Treblinka.
  • Uprising (April 1943) — the last act of resistance.
  • Aftermath and Memory — the end of the Ghetto and time frozen.

Why This Matters

  • A Voice from Inside — testimony created within the Ghetto as events unfolded, offering an unfiltered view of history.
  • Understanding Life in the Ghetto — a way to grasp not only the destruction but also the daily struggles, fears, and resilience of Jews in Warsaw.
  • Literature as Testimony — art that became record, preserving what official documents could not.
  • Still Relevant Today — confronting indifference, antisemitism, and the ongoing need to resist forgetting.
  • A Call to Remember — carrying memory, dignity, and truth forward across generations.

Who Is This For

This talk is fully customizable and available in-person or online. It is ideal for:

  • Synagogues and Jewish communities seeking meaningful Holocaust remembrance programming
  • Schools and universities studying Holocaust literature and Jewish history
  • Cultural centers and heritage groups exploring resilience and memory
  • Holocaust Remembrance events including for Yom HaShoah (April/May) or International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27).
  • Heritage travelers preparing to visit Warsaw and Holocaust sites

Book a Talk

Leave your details and we’ll be in touch to plan a meaningful talk tailored to your audience.

Traveler Questionnaire

Shlomo Katz

Art of Light, Tradition, and Renewal

Shlomo Katz (1937–1992) was an extraordinary Jewish-Israeli artist whose legacy bridges Jewish tradition with striking innovation. Born in Łódź, Poland, and immigrating to Israel in 1945, Katz’s life and art reflect the story of the Jewish people—rooted in memory, faith, and renewal.

Educated on Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek, Katz revealed his talent early and later studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he developed a unique artistic style influenced by medieval icons and oriental miniatures. His work combined ancient motifs with modern sensibility, establishing him as one of the most respected Jewish artists of his time.

Katz became known for his groundbreaking technique of painting with oil on gilded metallic surfaces, producing works that shimmer with light and spiritual depth. This mastery reached its height in his monumental series for the United States Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs, where nine radiant paintings stand as a testament to his vision. He later refined this approach into advanced screen printing with metallic inks, creating celebrated works such as The Ten Plagues and the Passover Portfolio.

His art was exhibited worldwide and entered major collections, including the Wolfson Museum of Judaism in Jerusalem, the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Jewish Art in Paris, and the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne.

Shlomo Katz’s creations embody art as a bridge between past and future, tradition and modernity. They remind us of the enduring beauty of Jewish culture and the human spirit. His legacy lives on in works that continue to inspire, connect, and illuminate.

Oded Feingersh

Painter of Color, Land, and Spirit

Oded Feingersh, born in 1938, is one of Israel’s most distinguished contemporary painters, carrying forward the legacy of his grandfather, Meir Rosin, the first sign painter and landscape artist in the Land of Israel. Growing up in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood, he developed a strong connection to the Hebrew language, the land, and above all, to art.

A graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in 1963, Feingersh studied under leading Israeli artists such as Mordecai Ardon, Isidor Ascheim, and Jacob Pins. His style blends realism with the influence of pop art, while his love of Israel’s landscapes, nurtured during his studies at the Avshalom Institute, shines through in his work.

In the 1960s, Feingersh traveled to France, where he joined the Belgian anarchist art group Mass Mobbing and later became the first Israeli artist awarded the LEFRANC Prize for Young Artists. Returning to Israel, he quickly gained recognition, with solo exhibitions at the Tel Aviv Museum and the Herzliya Museum, and in 1976 received the prestigious Dizengoff Art Prize.

Over his long career, Feingersh has exhibited extensively in Israel and abroad, illustrated books, and authored 13 volumes of poetry. In 2005, he marked 40 years of artistic creation with a major retrospective at the Givatayim Theater. Today, he is regarded as one of Israel’s most senior and influential living painters, whose work continues to bridge tradition and modernity, imagination and landscape.

Pinchas Shaar

Artist of Imagination and Memory

Pinchas Shaar, born in Poland as Pinchas Schwartz, was an extraordinary figure whose life and art reflect resilience, creativity, and a deep connection to Jewish culture. Growing up in a home that valued art and freedom of thought, he began painting and writing as a teenager, inspired by his artistic roots in the family of Yankel Adler.
The outbreak of World War II profoundly shaped his life.

After serving in the Polish army and being captured by the Germans, Shaar returned to the Łódź Ghetto, where he worked as an artist in the Office of Statistics until its liquidation in 1944. Surviving Sachsenhausen concentration camp, he was liberated in 1945 and soon began rebuilding his life through art, first in Germany and later in Paris.
His career spanned continents and decades, from designing sets for Israel’s Chamber Theater to presenting at major institutions such as the Jewish Museum in New York, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and the Linbach Museum in Munich.

In Jaffa, he established a permanent studio that became a hub of creativity and expression.

Shaar’s works are instantly recognizable: brightly colored, filled with whimsical figures, fantastical animals, and perspectives that feel like magical carpets. They balance innocence with depth, humor with pain, playfulness with reflection. Beyond paintings, he also created tapestries, mosaics, and reliefs, always weaving together fantasy and reality.
“I come to the audience with my world,” Shaar once said, “It did not exist until I took it out of the intestines.” His art embodies that vision—a deeply personal world offered to others, where imagination, heritage, and memory meet. To encounter Pinchas Shaar’s work is to step into a universe of color and emotion, an experience that stays with the viewer long after.

David Sharir – Artist of Stage, Wall, and Soul

A visionary of color, imagination, and heritage

David Sharir, born in 1938, is one of Israel’s most prominent multidisciplinary artists, whose work spans painting, stage and costume design, mosaics, and visual interpretations of literature and biblical texts. From his early recognition as a prize-winning young painter, Sharir went on to design for Israel’s leading theaters, including Habima, Cameri, and Batsheva Dance Company, creating productions still remembered for their creativity and color.

His artistic vision extends beyond the stage to monumental public works, such as the mosaic “Tower of Babel” at Tel Aviv University and “Tel Aviv–Jaffa Second Generation” at the Shalom Tower. These large-scale creations reflect his signature blend of humor, imagination, and storytelling rooted in Jewish culture.

Sharir’s art often explores the dialogue between literature, biblical texts, and visual form, with series inspired by the Book of Psalms and the writings of S.Y. Agnon. Since 2003, he has also served as curator of the Shalom Tower Gallery in Tel Aviv, continuing to shape and enrich the Israeli art scene.

Today, David Sharir is celebrated not only as an artist but as a storyteller whose works transcend canvas and stage, inviting viewers on a journey through heritage, creativity, and the soul.

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